Storyline Above Tatooine a ship is being chased and boarded by an Imperial contingent, Princess Leia, one of the youngest Senators pleads with the sinister Lord Vader that she is just a diplomatic ship. But Vader suspects that her ship is part of the Rebel Alliance that has been plaguing the Empire, and that vital plans had been sent to the ship. He takes everyone hostage and sends a team of Storm Troopers to the planet below in search of a missing 'pod'. Inside the pod are two droids, C-3PO, a protocol droid, and R2-D2, an astromech droid. Meanwhile on the planet, Luke Skywalker is disgruntled, his uncle will not allow him to join the military like all of his friends, he goes with his uncles to buy some droids from the Jawas and purchases C-3PO and R2-D2. But during the night R2-D2 runs off, leaving Luke to search for him in the morning. Luke finds himself out in the wastelands and is attacked by the vicious Sandpeople before managing to find the missing droid. Old Ben Kenobi saves Luke and takes the two droids back to his home, there Luke learns that Ben, was once a Jedi Knight known as Obi-Wan and that they must save the Princess. Ben asks Luke to come and learn the ways of the Force with him, Luke leaves for home only to find it burnt out, his Uncle and Aunt's burnt bodies lying out the front. Luke leaves for Mos Eisly with Ben, only to encounter some Storm troopers which Ben waves off with Jedi 'powers'. In a shady cantina, they encounter Han Solo, a smuggler who agrees to take them to Alderaan for a hefty sum that will get Jabba the Hutt off of his back. The group board the old freight and jump into hyperspace in the nick of time. Meanwhile with the Imperials, Princess Leia is being tortured for information on a Rebel base, Tarkin, the commander of the battle station asks her for a target to test their new weapon, by threatening her home world of Alderaan. She gives them a location but he blows up Alderaan anyway. During the trip, Ben feels a 'disturbance in the Force' and when they arrive at Alderaan they only find debris and 'that is no moon'. The Death Star pull them into the station, whilst everyone hides in the smuggler compartments. The group escape the ship, Ben, off to stop the tracker beams, Han and Luke to save the Princess. Luke and Han manage to save Leia, but end up in a garbage compartment, whilst Ben manages to bring down the tracker beam. On their escape, Ben takes on Darth Vader, his old apprentice and disappears leaving Luke and the rest time to escape. They reach the Rebel base on Yavin 4 with the plans of the Death Star and they mount an attack. Luke joins his old friend Biggs as an X-Wing pilot, whilst Han runs off with his money as the Death Star approaches. The plan is simple, fly the small X-Wings into the Death Star and hit a small exhaust point, thus setting up a chain reaction to blow it up. But each run set are attacked by a trio of TIE fighters, leaving Luke as the only hope. During his run, Biggs is killed and Wedge damaged, leaving only Luke and the TIE fighters, he hears Ben's vice in his head, Trust your feelings. At the very last moment, Han shots the lead TIE fighter, giving Luke the chance to blow the battle station up complete. Victory!

Review Remember first watching this movie? I don;t really, I vaguely remember it but watching it again years later I remembered the excitement and horror of every moment. How could a single ship thing blow up an entire planet? How could someone be so callous? It is a fantastic story of a boy who aspires to be more and gets the chance to, its got mysticism with 'the Force', fun, adventure. It is The story of a boy, a girl and a universe. Love it! And the subtle changes in the DVDs are cute, though HAN SHOT FIRST!

Episode V: Empire Strikes Back

Storyline So the Death Star has been destroyed, but the Empire still exists and the Rebels are still too small to try and make a difference. On the snow planet of Hoth, the Rebels set up camp, but when Luke doesn't return from his patrol, Han goes out looking for him. Han manages to find Luke, cold and beaten up, calling out 'Ben' on the snow and they set up camp for the night. Meanwhile, the Imperial probe droid that Luke saw has relayed the information back to the Imperials, sending Darth Vader out to flush out the Rebels. Luke is healed in a bacta tank whilst Han makes leave to go. Before Han gets his chance, the Imperials attack, Luke and the other pilots take snow speeders to stop the AT-AT machines whilst the civilian ships escape through the energy barrier and into hyperspace before the Imperial Star Destroyers can get them. Luke manages to stop an AT-AT and get back to his X-Wing, Han takes Leia and 3PO with him in the Falcon and they escape together, but Luke doesn't go to the rendezvous point, instead going to Dagobah, the system Obi-Wan's ghost told him to go to and Han's ship doesn't work and they are forced into hiding in the near by asteroid field. On Dagobah, Luke finds a funny little green creature called 'Yoda' who starts to teach him the ways of the Force. In the asteroid field, Han is forced to leave his hiding place and jump to the Bespin, the Cloud City to see if he can get help from an old friend, they don't realise that the bounty hunter, Boba Fett is on their tail. When they reach the city, they are escorted down and things don't feel right, the suave Lando Calrissian, leads them to dinner, with Darth Vader! They are the bait for young Skywalker! Han is interrogated for no reason what so ever whilst Luke has visions of their demise and rushes off to try and save them. Yoda mentions, "There is another" as Luke leaves. Luke gets to Cloud City, but not quick enough to save Han from being frozen in carbonite (after a touching "I love you" "I know" scene with Han and Leia) and taken by the Bounty Hunter, Boba Fett and he duels with Darth Vader. Vader calls to Luke, "join me" and after cutting off Luke's hand tells Luke, "I am your father." Screaming in anguish, Luke falls down the spire and calls to Leia to come rescue him. Lando, having now joined the team, pilots the Falcon and joins the Rebels, saving Luke in the process.

Review Some argue that this is the best Star Wars movie and it is very good, very dark. The movie is a retaliation of the events in the first, the Empire are still alive and kicking, still as dangerous as ever. They hire anyone and anything to get things done and will stop at nothing for total control. Vader tries to influence Luke by telling him his heritage, hoping that this will turn the boy Jedi to his side and away from Yoda and Obi-Wan, in a way Vader seems to be trying to justify his own actions as well. Lando is a treat, but the appearance of Boba Fett is always the highlight for me.

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Storyline Han has been taken to Jabba the Hutt by the bounty hunter Boba Fett, Lando has already gone there to infiltrate the area waiting for the others to 'spring their trap'. Luke sends C-3PO and R2-D2 to Jabba, as a gift, hoping to secure Han peacefully. Another bounty hunter enters the palace with Chewie, asking for the reward, Jabba laughs and accepts the outrageous price, liking the hunter's style. During the night, the hunter finds their way down into Jabba's room and releases Han from his carbonite prison, the hunter is in fact the Princess Leia, but Jabba discovers them and takes her as his slave and imprisons Han. Luke arrives and tries to convince Jabba, but the huge slug is immune to Jedi mind tricks and sends Luke down to his pet Rancor. When Luke defeats the monstrous creature he is sentenced to death in the Pit of Carkoon with Han and Chewie. But Luke has foreseen this and before being thrown into the pit, R2-D2 shoots his lightsabre into the air, Luke frees Han and Chewie whilst Lando and Leia set about aiding the escape. Han sends Boba Fett down into the pit whilst Leia struggles the disguising Jabba the Hutt. They all escape back to the Rebels. Luke returns to Dagobah and Yoda, to complete his training, only to be told that he will only be a complete Jedi when he confronts Vader, Yoda dies and disappears. Obi-Wan comforts Luke and tells Luke that he has a sister, Luke figures out that it is Leia. The Rebels have discovered the construction of a second Death Star and set a plan to which a small group will go to the forest moon of Endor to take down the shield enabling the fleet to destroy the half completed Death Star. Luke, Han, Leia & Chewie lead the team on the surface whilst Lando, Wedge and Admiral Ackbar lead the fight against the Imperials. But Vader senses Luke. Luke goes to Vader on the surface and is taken to the Emperor on the Death Star who has announced that the Rebels have walked into a trap. Meanwhile on the surface, Leia made an alliance with fuzzy little natives known as Ewoks and together they take the military base but get captured, right at the last minute they succeed, along the fighters access into the Death Star. The Emperor starts to kill Luke only to be thrown down the core by Vader, in Vader's last deeming money and change back to the side of light. The Death Star blows up, everyone is reunited and the Empire is broken! *happy dance*

Review This was my favourite of them all for many many years, Love love the Jabba's palace bit, it was always the most thrilling and exciting, especially Boba Fett, I just adore Boba Fett! But the rest of the story is just as good, the evil is over thrown, the Ewoks are amusing, Storm troopers really can't shoot and Luke tells Leia about Vader. Wonderful! Best conclusion, love it. It is also nice to see Vader redeeming himself too.

1997 Changes
Some scenes were added into the 1997 release of the films, such as some new special effects, some clean ups, Jabba the Hutt scene in Episode 4, the extended music scene in Jabba's palace and the like. Some of the noteable ones include:

The Storm troopers ride more dewbacks when looking for the droids

CGI version of Jabba the Hutt confronts Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon's launch bay

Greedo now fires a very badly aimed shot at Han before being shot in the cantina - promiting the 'Han Shot First' movement

The blooper involving the Stormtrooper who hits his head on the bottom of an upwardly-opening door inside the Death Star has been removed and re-filmed correctly

Cloud City now has windows and more footage of the city is shown

A digital hatch has been added to replace the white light that appears when Lando opens the outer hatch to rescue Luke

A revised version of the Sarlacc at the base of the Pit of Carkoon - not so dodgy looking

After the Empire is defeated, scenes of celebration on Endor, Bespin, Tatooine, and Coruscant are shown

2004 Changes
Some more things were changed, reworked and the like for the DVD release in 2004. Some of the noteable ones include:

The Mos Eisley/Greedo scene is redone yet again, so that Greedo and Han shoot at almost the exact same moment, but Greedo is still fractionally ahead. Also Han dodges Greedo's shot by moving to his right.

When the two stormtroopers exit the Millennium Falcon, one of them says, "There's no one here."

In a scene where Darth Vader speaks to the Emperor via hologram, the Emperor is now Palpatine as portrayed by Ian McDiarmid rather than the other actor

The four lines spoken by Boba Fett are now in the voice of Temuera Morrison, the actor who played Jango Fett

Boba Fett now laughs along with Jabba the Hutt while Luke fights the rancor, matching his laugh from Attack of the Clones

Another scene of celebration, this one on Naboo, is shown after the Empire is defeated. A Gungan can be heard saying "Wesa free!

Hayden now plays the ghost Anakin Skywalker rather than Sebastian Shaw

These are some of my favourite images found at a variety of sources Click on the image to enlarge - opens new window

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